Women Inspiring Women

Press Report January 2019

A very happy 2019 to everyone, not only those in our WI but also to all the local WIs in the area and, of course, the good people of Brockenhurst.

We had a magnificent turn out for our January meeting with 45 members attending and 3 visitors.We were serenaded when singing Jerusalem by our speaker, Mr Simon Morgan, playing a soprano saxophone which made our voices swell more than usual!We had various correspondence including a huge thank you from the Red Box charity thanking us for our support throughout 2018 – we will be continuing to support this amazing cause going into 2019 and indeed, our own ‘Red Box’ was full to the brim at the meeting.Birthday posies were given out to Diane Fletcher, Sheila Pickering, Zena Smith, Margaret Johnson and Margaret Porteus so a very happy birthday to our Capricorn chums.The cold has driven our netball team indoors until the Spring so if you’re thinking of joining them, they’re now in the village hall and warm.The skittles team are through to the semi finals of the group stages, the big event is on 22 February at Lyndhurst Community Centre (all supporters welcome) and we are looking for volunteers to take place in this year’s village pancake race (may have to be press ganged).Evelyn Bartlett is part of a committee involved in documenting and celebrating the 100th anniversary celebrations and she handed out a questionnaire that we were invited to fill in to try and gauge what drives our members, why they joined the WI and what they like to do etc – we are looking forward to the fruits of their labour.Anne Nolan brought everyone’s attention to the New Forest Show Schedule so members have plenty of time to form our strategy for the forthcoming Carnival theme.Julia Wilson handed out seeds for this year’s growing competition so members were given their dwarf broad bean seeds – expectations are high for a big yield.

The main body of the meeting was the WI Annual Resolutions which we all have a vote on, the subjects to vote on this year were 1) Improving Plant Biosecurity in the UK, 2) Trees – Improving the Natural Landscape, 3) Pelvic Floor Education, 4) Menstrual Health Taboos, 5) Declining Local Bus Service and 6) Don’t Fear the Smear.Our votes will be amalgamated with the group votes and this will be escalated up to a national level and will form part of the NFWI Annual Meeting vote in June 2019.

We were then entertained and informed by the talented Mr Simon Morgan who gave a talk entitled “Saxophones and Clarinets” which documented his service and musical history in the Royal Marines.He joined as a tenor sax in 1972 and left as a band master in 1996.He brought along several instruments including the soprano saxophone, a clarinet and the bass clarinet and played several beautiful pieces of music which we were invited to ‘guess that song’ – everything from blues to Disney.He spoke knowledgeably about the different types of woodwind instruments that he played and showed us how they differed in tone and sound.It was incredibly entertaining and before we knew it he had finished and coffees and teas were ready.

The flower competition (yes, in January we had lots of entries) was won by our President, Janette Smethurst.

Our next meeting is our birthday meeting (101 years old) so the February meeting will be at the Balmer Lawn Hotel and will be a social dinner which we are all looking forward to.